RETROSPECTIVE COGNITION IN SOCIOLOGY: SOME GNOSEOLOGICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES (Retrospektyvne piznannia v sotsiolohii: deiaki hnoseolohichni ta metodolohichni problemy)

The article examines the gnoseological features of retrospective cognition, as well as its general principles. There are analyzed such problems as the correlation of retro-reflection contexts, the application of reconstruction method, and the doctrine of the history 're-comprehension'. On the basis of general sociological approach, the author analyses the complex and specific character of the historical cognition as the special way of retrospection. The channels of sociological control over this process are substantiated in order to avoid any application of historians' erroneous conclusions and intentional ideological distortions within sociological researches. The interpretation of F. Znaniecki's 'humanistic coefficient' as an index of the relation between value levels of the past and the present, or as an imitational relation of the present to the past, is also set forth in the article.